New stories in May

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Most of our stories are now posted as normal web pages, rather than as blogs. Here are new stories in late April and May.

Recent Posts

Left: Gender parity in education. Our map on this subject, drawn from UNESCO data proved quite controversial, and there are issues with it — though not what you might expect. For one thing, UNESCO bobbled some data.
Right: The Shadow Government. UNICEF produces reports — not always good ones! — for weak governments to publish as their own. This ends up being even worse than it sounds.
Left: Cellphones and literacy. UNESCO took money from big tech to publish a deceitful report that benefited the company that gave it the money. If an African president had done that, what would we call it?
Right: Cash transfers. Why not just give aid funds directly to the people you want to help? This approach has been done, results have been studied — and it proves quite effective.
Left: “Will they just spend it on beer?” Instead of aid funds going to governments and NGOs, why not give it directly to the poor? Here are answers to common questions about cash transfer programs.
Right: Why not just give them the money? Cash transfers — just giving aid money directly to those you wish to help — has a proven track record. Why does the aid industry dislike this approach?
Left: Cash transfers. Instead of giving foreign aid money to governments and NGOs, would it be more effective to give it directly to the people? We asked in a poll; here are results.
Right: Gender parity in education. The aid industry tells us that girls are short-changed on education, especially in Africa. They’re twisting the data, to bring in the dollars. The U.N.’s own numbers show a very different story.
Left: Why won’t they hire local talent? World Vision, Unicef, Save the Children, and others issue frequent reports on how they’re helping people in distant lands. Why do they prefer to hire Western photographers for these reports?
Right: What do your schools focus on? We polled people in 15 diverse countries. A decisive majority said their schools primarily teach children to pass tests.